As I was getting ready for some good ole’ fashion football media day festivities, I was talking with athletic media relations student worker Andrew Bartolini (’13) about how we thought the football season would play out. Our conversation flowed from this season to fun things we had done recently and new marketing tactics the University could try with a variety of sports (I’m still hoping for a Coach Halfpenny night at women’s lacrosse where you get two tickets for a penny).

While talking I made him take the following photo: (If you are a fan of professional golf you will understand, if not, search Dufnering)

After doing what was quite possibly the first “Dufnering” effort in the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium, we began talking about crazy-awesome marketing ideas for football games.

We present our top-three ideas…

1. The Four Horsemen Ride Again –
Picture this. Night game against USC and the crowd is on their feet as the team has left the locker room and is down in the tunnel. Finally, smoke starts pouring out of the tunnel and Crazy Train begins playing … then all of a sudden four horses come storming out of the tunnel with guys sporting old uniforms and leather helmets mounted on them. To cap it off, stadium announcer Mike Collins proclaims over the PA, “The four horsemen ride again!!” The football team will follow the horses onto the field.
PROS- It would awesome. It would combine our history with the present times. Did I mention it would be awesome?
CONS- A horse may run into the goalpost because there would smoke in its path.

2. The Coaches Race –
Have you ever seen the Presidents race at the Washington Nationals game? If so, we take that idea and use former Notre Dame Coaches. Can you imagine the scene when costumes of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Frank Leahy, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz come bolting out of the tunnel? Yeah, me neither. I feel like this may be over-doing it.PROS- It would be hilarious. We would ensure that one of them never wins.
CONS- I feel like if this happened it may be the end of Notre Dame football as we know it.

3. Wii On The JumboTron –
This final idea is all contingent on a big video board being built at Notre Dame Stadium. Nonetheless, during NBC TV timeouts, the Notre Dame marketing department would have two fans, one Notre Dame student and an opposing fan, come down and play some sort of Nintendo Wii Sports game. Then the two students would battle it out playing Wii Boxing or Wii Baseball on the big board while 80,795 fans watch and cheer on their every move. Having a fan of both teams playing would create a great atmosphere during commercials.
PROS- Would require the use of technology.
CONS- Would require the use of technology.

Do you have any “awesome” marketing ideas to be put in use during Notre Dame games at Notre Dame Stadium? Or any other Notre Dame athletics event? Send me your ideas at Ahorvat3@nd.edu or on twitter at @NDSportsBlogger and I will compile them for a future blog post.

Not sure if you were being facetious with the first one, but that really does sound incredibly awesome. That needs to happen. Call up the Legion and make this happen!

How about for one of our night games we have “The Night Light” quarter. Before the game, ushers place a handheld LED light on each seat location and during the 3rd or 4th sometime, all the stadium lights go out. Each fan has to use their light to brighten the field enough for the game to continue.

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